THINKING CURRICULUM

“He who learns but does not think is lost” ~ Confucius

If students are to function successfully in a highly technical society, then they must be equipped with lifelong learning and thinking skills necessary to acquire and process information in an ever-changing world.

At Scoresby Primary School we believe that students can be taught to think. We know that learning and thinking involves more that the gathering, memorising and regurgitation of facts and information. We believe that it involves the whole school developing a thinking culture, by talking about thinking strategies and skills and by using these to solve problems, develop ideas, work divergently and think in different ways within authentic contexts.

We have adopted and adapted a number of approaches and models of the teaching of thinking to incorporate into our curriculum programs and to inform our whole school thinking skills program. These include:

µ Bloom’s Taxonomy

Benjamin Bloom created taxonomy of thinking levels in the 1950's. Today educators use Bloom's Taxonomy to create challenging and sophisticated activities for learning.

Knowledge - Get your facts right! - The easiest of thinking levels where you need to describe and identify things to show you have remembered or learned.
Comprehension - What does it all mean? - This type of thinking activity is to show that you understand what you have learned.
Application - Use it or lose it! - You’ll need to think a little harder to do these activities where you'll need to make use of information to make something.
Analysis - Breakdown - these thinking activities need to connect and organise information.
Synthesis - Creating new things - this level of thinking needs to you take little pieces of information and create something new.
Evaluation - Judge and Jury - with these activities you'll need to make judgements and think hard to support your opinions.

µ Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats

To help separate information and perspectives de Bono created a tool called the Six Thinking Hats with each hat being a different colour.

White Hat - seeking information
Blue Hat - for planning, monitory and thinking about thinking
Yellow Hat - looking for the advantages
Black Hat - looking for the disadvantages
Green Hat - being creative, generating alternative ideas or solutions
Red Hat - expressing feelings

µ Gardner’s Multiple Intelligences

Traditionally intelligence was seen as maths and language based, however, recent research shows that people have different strengths or intelligences and learn best in different ways.

In 1983, American psychologist Howard Gardner formulated the theory of multiple intelligences. Gardner's work alerted educators to the different ways people process information and the importance of designing learning events to cater for these differences. Initially Gardner theorised that there were seven intelligences but in recent years more have been added:

Verbal Linguistic - the ability to use words and language
Logical Mathematical - highly developed ability to use reason, logic and numbers
Bodily Kinaesthetic - capacity to control body movement and handle physical objects
Visual Spatial - strong visual capacity to think in pictures and create pictures in their mind
Musical Rhythmical - heightened ability to appreciate and produce music and sound
Interpersonal - advanced ability to relate to and understand other people
Intrapersonal - exhibit a strong sense of self and ability to understand and share their inner thoughts and feelings
Naturalist - recognition, appreciation and understanding of the natural world around us

µ Tony Ryan’s Thinker’s Keys

First developed by Tony Ryan, Thinker's Keys are a set of twenty different activities designed to engage and motivate learners in a range of thinking tasks. A range of question or task starters are presented as keys to unlocking the analytical, critical and creative thinking abilities of learners.

µ Graphic Organisers

A graphic organiser is a tool to scaffold, sort or record thinking and information. Graphic organisers help to compress, focus and clarify information whilst guiding the learner. There are a variety of graphic organisers suitable for all ages including:

Venn Diagrams - work for the comparison of two or more things, it allows for clear visualisation of similarities and differences.
Data Grid, Matrix, Table - a table layout with headings to allow for easy recording of notes in various cells/boxes.
Tree Diagram - organises things into groups then smaller groups.
Flow Diagram - words and pictures are organised / recorded sequentially.
Timeline - tool for establishing chronological order.
Web Diagram - shows relationships between events, objects and people.
Storyboard - series of snapshots of important stages of development.
Story Map - plots sequentially the main events in a story.

µ Habits of Mind

A Habit of Mind is knowing how to behave intelligently when you do not know the answer or when you are faced with a problem.

The 16 Habits of Mind listed by Costa and Kallick include:

Persisting
Thinking and communicating with clarity and precession
Managing impulsivity
Gathering data through all senses
Listening with understanding and empathy
Creating, imaging, innovating
Thinking flexibly
Responding with wonderment and awe
Thinking about Thinking (Metacognition)
Taking responsible risks
Striving for accuracy
Finding humour
Questioning and posing problems
Thinking interdependently
Applying past knowledge to new situations
Remaining open to continuous learning (life long learning)

Reference: http://www.habitsofmind.org/